Turbine lab in works for GE

Notre Dame to build $36 million testing facility for company

Published 8:48 pm, Thursday, June 26, 2014

Schenectady

General Electric Co. will spend $13.5 million over the next five years to help establish a $36 million turbine engine testing lab at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

The investment continues a recent trend by GE to invest heavily in the power sector, as well as its Power & Water unit based in Schenectady. Other recent developments include its $17 billion bid to acquire the energy assets of Alstom SA of France and plans for a $400 million advanced manufacturing center in Greenville, S.C.

The new Notre Dame facility, which will employ 60 people and is also receiving funding from the school and government entities, will not only benefit GE's Schenectady unit, but also its aviation and oil and gas operations that use turbine engines.

It will be called the Notre Dame Turbomachinery Facility, and appears to have a primary focus on turbine engines used in commercial and military aircraft, although it will also focus on turbine engines used in power plants, the main focus of GE Power & Water.

The 25,000-square-foot facility will be located inside a new 43,000-square-foot building at Ignition Park, a tech park in South Bend.

"The center will allow GE's industrial businesses to simulate full-scale engine operating environments," said Rick Stanley, vice president and chief technologist for GE's Power & Water business and a Notre Dame graduate. "The important rig testing we will do at the center builds upon GE's already strong and long-standing technical relationship with the university. For years, GE has turned to Notre Dame for top technical talent."

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Notre Dame has run a turbine testing facility since 2003. The new site will have five test bays where researchers will be able to test turbine engine components at higher pressures and temperatures than allowed anywhere else in the United States.